The Scapegoat

Author: Daphne du Maurier

Classic fiction (pre c 1945)

Published on 12 November 2026 by Little, Brown Book Group (Virago Press Ltd) in the United Kingdom as part of 'the Virago Modern Classics' series

Paperback | 384 pages
196 x 126 x 28 | 302g

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA'What a magnificent thriller this is' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'A good original novel, well tinged with nightmare' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENTHe was my shadow, or I was his, and we were bound to each other through eternity.

Two men - one English, one French - meet by chance in a railway station. Their resemblance is uncanny, and they spend the night talking and drinking together. But when John wakes the next morning that he realises his French companion has stolen his identity and disappeared. Forced to step into his doppelganger's shoes, John finds himself entangled in a web of secrets: as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing.

'A sublime and gothic genius. She is in a league of her own' CAMILLA GRUDOVA 'Gripping . . . It has great literary sophistication and an alienated post-war male conscience at its core' LISA APPIGNANESI